Lone Priced Sale In Alford Closes At $750,000 As Three Deeds Await Data

ALFORD -- Four properties changed hands in Alford between Sept. 4 and Oct. 3, but only one of those transactions has a recorded sale price so far: a $750,000 sale on Green River Valley Road. The other three deeds recorded during the period, including two parcels acquired by the town's conservation program, have not yet shown a price in registry records.

MARKET OVERVIEW

The Southern Berkshire Registry of Deeds recorded four property transfers in Alford during the period, a count consistent with the town's typically low monthly sales volume. Only one of the four, the Sept. 25 sale on Green River Valley Road, carries a recorded sale price: $750,000. Because that is the only transaction with a price on record, it also sets the period's full price range and median at $750,000. Prices for the other three transfers had not yet reached the registry's records as of this report. A missing price in deed data is normal and usually reflects a short lag before the figure is recorded, typically about a week, rather than any withholding by the parties involved. With three of the four transactions still unpriced, the available data is too limited to characterize the period as active or quiet based on price alone.

TOP SALES

The lone transaction with a recorded price is the Sept. 25 sale of 150 Green River Valley Road for $750,000. The sellers were John Raifstanger III and John T. Raifstanger; the deed record did not list a buyer. Bedroom, bathroom and square footage figures were not available from the deed record. The remaining three transfers recorded during the period have no price yet available: a property with no street address listed, sold Oct. 2, with Berkshire Bank as seller and John Raifstanger III and Trinity Raifstanger as buyers; 0 Crooked Hill Road, sold Sept. 29, with Mahican Meadow Trio LLC and Jeffrey Tannenbaum, as trustee, as sellers and Alford Town Conservation as buyer; and 87 Whites Hill Road, sold Sept. 21, with Mark Batten and Margaret Batten as sellers and Alford Town Conservation as buyer.

NEIGHBORHOOD BREAKDOWN

The four transfers occurred on four different streets, and no street recorded more than one sale during the period, so no street-level clustering is evident. A pattern does emerge by transaction type instead: two of the four deeds, covering Crooked Hill Road and Whites Hill Road, named Alford Town Conservation as the buyer. The Green River Valley Road sale and the transfer with no listed street address fall outside that pattern and do not share a common buyer, seller or location with each other or with the conservation purchases.

MARKET NOTES

Two of the four deeds recorded this period, at 0 Crooked Hill Road and 87 Whites Hill Road, named Alford Town Conservation as the buyer, indicating conservation-related land acquisition was the single most common thread in this month's recorded transfers. The seller on the Crooked Hill Road parcel included a trust interest, with Mahican Meadow Trio LLC and Jeffrey Tannenbaum listed as trustee. One transfer named Berkshire Bank as the seller, with John Raifstanger III and Trinity Raifstanger as buyers. The surname Raifstanger appears in two separate transactions this period: John Raifstanger III as a seller on the Green River Valley Road property, and John Raifstanger III as a buyer, with Trinity Raifstanger, on the bank-sold property. The deed records do not indicate what, if any, relationship exists between the two transactions, and no motivation is stated in the records. Property type, bedroom, bathroom and square footage data were not available in the deed records for any of the four transfers, so no price-per-square-foot comparisons can be made for this period.

Recorded Deeds

Source: Registry of Deeds. Sale amounts shown as recorded; transfers without a disclosed consideration are noted as such.

Compiled from official town feeds, community organizations, and local press. Outside reporting is attributed inline.